The American Councils for International Education is inviting foreign language professors and students to participate in the online field testing of reading and listening comprehension assessments in one of the following languages:
Brazilian Portuguese
Hindi
Korean
Mandarin Chinese
Modern Standard Arabic
Persian (Farsi)
Russian
Swahili
Turkish
Urdu
Participant Eligibility
US-based university undergraduate or graduate student
Not currently enrolled in a Flagship program
Enrolled in second year of college level target language or higher OR Elementary-level proficiency equivalent to Level 1 on the ILR scale OR Intermediate low level or above on the ACTFL scale
Heritage speakers welcome to participate
Participants
Participating professors will receive:
Acknowledgement on the American Councils website and project-related technical reports
An honorarium $100 for proctoring the assessment
Informal preliminary student proficiency level scores
The opportunity to use the results in their teaching
Participating students:
The first 100 student participants to register per target language will each receive a $20 Amazon.com gift card after completion of both reading and comprehension assessment sections
Participants’ scores will be available via secure website in the fall
Assessment Window
The test will be scheduled online between Monday, September 16, 2013 (9 a.m. EST) and Monday, October 14, 2013 (5 p.m. EST).
Exam Format
The tests will be delivered online and will consist of two sections that may be taken at separate sittings: reading and listening comprehension. Each section contains 44 items and will take up to 90 minutes to complete. Students must complete both test sections to qualify for the $20 Amazon.com gift cards.
Participants will be asked to complete a registration page and background questionnaire about their language use, read American Council for International Education’s policy on the confidentiality of research, and sign a release statement permitting American Councils to use the data for group data. The results will not be identified with participants’ names or schools. Participants’ scores will be available via secure website in the fall.
Technical Requirements
The test will run in any Web browser (on Mac or Windows). Headphones or speakers will be needed for the listening section. There must be Flash on the computer you use to play the audio in the listening section. Flash can be downloaded for free at: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
Contact
If you are interested in participating or have any questions, please email Ms. Ola Mahmoud, Field Testing Coordinator by July 19, 2013.
Please include in your email:
Name:
Email address:
Assessment Language:
Name of Institution:
Faculty or student (specify):
Date of Birth (mm/dd/year):
How you heard of the field testing:
Professors, please also include:
Proctored or unproctored:
Institutional person proctoring:
Estimated number of students participating:
Please feel free to share with colleagues and friends.
Thank you for your interest!